[plug] #introducing and Installfests
Harry McNally
harrymc at decisions-and-designs.com.au
Thu Jun 18 23:27:34 AWST 2026
No over-stepping here Tony, these are really good ideas.
I'd seen the pop-up discount stores in the city (bare concrete floors) but I
didn't realise they could be free.
Wyatt has established PLUG as a community group at Canning Library which means
meetings at zero cost (and very close to the train station for access). A CBD
shopfront is definitely worth exploring.
All the best
Harry
On 18/6/26 21:41, Tony Tone via plug wrote:
> Hello All
>
> My nephews cousin was able to able to rent (free ) a shop on the corner of
> hay st mall and William st for over a year. They cannot get people into the
> city and shops lay empty. I understand most of us have other commitments but
> we may be able to negotiate a time and space that we could use one either
> week nights or weekends depending on how the schedule works. This would open
> you to more through traffic and you just open door policy and let people see
> how easy Linux system can be.
> Only a thought
>
> I also agree with Harry.
> Although the control of the internet is not the reason I wanted to use Linux
> and join PLUG I believe it is more relevant now than ever before.
> I see an option, you can offer ways that people can “escape the matrix” if
> you will and show them how to set these systems up.
> I understand a lot of people will sacrifice there free will for convenience
> but I’m finding more and more people are opening up to the idea of using
> operating systems that don’t give away all the information to a big
> corporation. Especially since there are so many better open source apps out
> there than the ones currently running on platforms.
>
> I’m know I’m new to the group I hope I haven’t overstepped.
>
> Also because I work month in month off I’m not really in Perth much.
> Trying to line up these meets is challenging.
> Hope to see you at one in the future.
>
> Tony
>
>
>> On 17 Jun 2026, at 11:34 am, Harry McNally via plug <plug at plug.org.au> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks Senectus, useful feedback.
>>
>> I can't get to as many events as I'd like but with so many resources
>> on-line, perhaps IRL is what PLUG offers. That has a higher cost to PLUG
>> except PLUG in the Pub but some people may prefer events that don't have
>> beer and food cost. I don't know without asking the people here or doing
>> the meetup Onno proposed.
>>
>> All the best
>> Harry
>>
>> On 15/6/26 14:20, Sen ectus via plug wrote:
>>> My involvement is dependent on whats going on in life... so over the many
>>> years I've basically just become a lurker.
>>>
>>> I'd like for PLUG to get a little more lively while not being demanding...
>>> something like the https://allthingslinux.org/ project (before it got
>>> cancelled and trolled and hacked into oblivion).
>>> A discord like chat/forum would be nice.
>>> But again, while I use Linux daily at work and home, I'm mostly just using
>>> it these days. I dont often get time to play or contribute.
>>>
>>> On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 at 12:16, Harry McNally via plug <plug at plug.org.au> wrote:
>>>
>>> Late last year, Onno and I discussed ways to find out what subscribers
>>> might be seeking from membership of PLUG or subscribing to the PLUG
>>> mailing list. Onno had helped another NFP group by hosting a meeting
>>> that, after four hours of ideas, arrived at a direction that suited
>>> the whole group. We wondered if a special event like that might
>>> increase IRL participation at events and encourage paid membership to
>>> support those events.
>>>
>>> To add to that Onno posted about his own experience with Linux and,
>>> while he got a few people figuring out when they started participating
>>> in PLUG, there wasn't a lot of feedback to match Onno's thoughtful
>>> consideration of how Linux has been part of his professional and
>>> technical life.
>>>
>>> It takes time to articulate and, I wondered, what am I going to say
>>> other than that I use it every day (pretty much exclusively other than
>>> when I use Win10 as a software wrapper around Altium Designer) ? So,
>>> apologies Onno, this post is a long time coming.
>>>
>>> With the next Installfest less that a week away, I thought I'd explain
>>> why I asked the committee if I could run a series of Installfests this
>>> year. The journey begins in the last millennium.
>>>
>>> I'd been using Linux for a few years by 1999 although I think the
>>> first system in the house was a firewall installed for us by Harry
>>> Protoolis around 1994.
>>>
>>> In the late 90's the Coalition Federal government needed support from
>>> a Tasmanian senator for <some unrelated bill> and he predicated his
>>> vote on the introduction of a net censorship bill. Wikipedia is light
>>> on the machinations but EFA has some archive material:
>>>
>>> https://efa.org.au/media-releases-archive/
>>>
>>> There was a lot of campaigning by the EFA and the first (of not very
>>> many) political rally I attended was the Anti-Censorship Protest in
>>> Perth May 28, 1999.
>>>
>>> See: https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/perth/index.html
>>>
>>> My reason for taking part was a technical one; that the methods they
>>> were proposing would not work and it was easy to take that position
>>> because CSIRO were an authoritative source that were informing
>>> parliament in the same way.
>>>
>>> The political reaction was savage. For anyone that remembers, the
>>> tactic taken was that anyone who opposed the Online Services Bill was
>>> a bomb maker, drug dealer, or child molester.
>>>
>>> I wondered, outside of the astonishment and outrage, if more people
>>> were better informed about what the Internet offered, then the debate
>>> might be more rational.
>>>
>>> That started what turned out to be 7 years of participation in
>>> Computer Angels in various roles and I am forever grateful for the
>>> participation of so many other technical supporters and non-technical
>>> volunteers for what was a free training and awareness organisation
>>> that supported that with a free re-furbished Linux computer.
>>>
>>> But while there was a lot of support from all sides with time and
>>> knowledge, the thing we constantly struggled with was financial; a
>>> premises needed rent and disposal costs for "working glass monitors"
>>> that were found to have weeds growing through them meant we were
>>> constantly looking for operating funds.
>>>
>>> That really wore us out and stopped us in 2007. Associations law
>>> required that we had to wind up in the black and boxes and boxes of
>>> IEC power cables became a skip full which went away for chipping to
>>> copper scrap. The copper price was at a peak and we got $2400 (I
>>> think) for the scrap which cleared our debts and, as required to wind
>>> up, we passed the remainder to "a like-minded association" which
>>> naturally was PLUG.
>>>
>>> I've also learned that a past Benjamin (we have a few) donated all
>>> fees from one of his consulting contracts on to PLUG so these
>>> intermittent cash injections have helped PLUG continue to host events;
>>> albeit frugally.
>>>
>>> Skip to late 2025 and this year and with Online Services (Age
>>> Restrictions) Bill and AI and I wondered if Installfests could
>>> encourage a new group of users to install Linux or become proficient
>>> with independent content using Hugo or a Mastodon server.
>>>
>>> James has demonstrated the minimal cost required to host PLUG on
>>> Digital Lane and my own interest is still RaspberryPi hosting on a
>>> home network. Could PLUG share Ansible scripts or configured RPi
>>> images to download to offer alternatives to social media algorithms ?
>>>
>>> So far public attendance at the Installfests has been mute but I have
>>> extended the promotion this time to see if we can reach people to
>>> simply install on a retired machine and give it a try. I see it as a
>>> Computer Angels flashmob; all the fun but at much lower cost.
>>>
>>> So the event this Saturday is on the usual page.
>>> https://plug.org.au/installfest
>>>
>>> Committee has added backup/restore as a theme and I have extended the
>>> RPi theme if anyone wants to bring ideas for home hosting servers or
>>> all other things Pi. If you let the list know if you are coming for an
>>> hour and what time then it is an opportunity to get like-minded
>>> project ideas at certain times.
>>>
>>> If we get more public attendees then more hands will be helpful. If we
>>> don't, then we can hear your ideas and projects that you can bring. It
>>> would be great to see you and them.
>>>
>>> All the best
>>> Harry
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
>>> https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
>>> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
>>> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> PLUG discussion list:plug at plug.org.au
>>> https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
>>> Committee e-mail:committee at plug.org.au
>>> PLUG Membership:http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>> _______________________________________________
>> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
>> https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
>> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
>> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list:plug at plug.org.au
> https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail:committee at plug.org.au
> PLUG Membership:http://www.plug.org.au/membership
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